About half a year ago we posted something about Welicoruss, a bunch of Russian Symphonic Black Metallers that many of you will have heard about throughout your Metal-loving careers. Today we’re back. Not with new songs, but with an awesome new music video as well as an interview with the band’s frontman / vocalist / guitarist, Alexey Boganov.

DMB: Alexey, it’s 2012 now, and ten years have passed since you formed the band in the Siberian capital of Novosibirsk. In hindsight, how do you look upon this decade?

Alexey: Hi! In fact, the project appeared in 2002, and the band was formed in 2005, so we are now six years old! But if we take into account that we began to do serious bodily movement only in 2008, then we get even less! Nevertheless, we have done a lot; two full length albums were released, one single was released as well, we took part in several compilations, released four official videos, we gave a lot of interviews in Russian and foreign press, received a lot of positive reviews about albums and several tours, many local gigs, as well also participated in major festivals!

DMB: You have celebrated quite some successes and performed a lot within Russia. However, I haven’t heard a lot of you guys playing abroad. Has it been hard to conquer Metal communities outside of your own country’s?

Alexey: You’re right, we are quite well-known in the Metal community in Russia, but as you said, the “conquer” of Europe is associated with many problems, in particular the problems of the country’s mentality, economic problems (we live 5,000 km from Europe) and so on. Nevertheless, we are preparing a major tour this fall of 2012!

DMB: What do you see as your best achievement abroad in the last ten years?

Alexey: I think the greatest achievement was the fact that we won first place in voting on a major French Metal portal Radiometal.fr! We were quite surprised that Frenchmen relished our music)

DMB: As discussed, you’ve made quite a name for yourselves within Russia. Can you comment on your ‘status’ within the Russian Metal community and where do you think the coming years will take you?

Alexey: Status? Hmm … As I said before, we are well-known in the Russian community, I think in the next few years after we succeed in implementing some of our ideas, we will become even more famous.

DMB: You guys released a new music video in early December of last year, for the song Kharnha (Карна). The video features a bunch of medieval Russ warriors slicing each others’ necks somewhere in the woods, as well as a fairy-like girl that patches up one of the wounded or dead young men afterwards. For all the non-Russian speakers, what is the song about and what is the meaning of the video?

Alexey: Let’s just say, Kharnha is our first really well thought out and professional video. We have invested a lot in it and we are happy with the result. The story is simple: the main hero receives a mortal wound, and falls on the battlefield in one of the military clashes with the enemy. He sees a maiden in white in his death delirium. She takes him to another world and leads him to surprising places and natural landscapes and eventually leads him to the armor of the Gods. After he puts on the suit of armor, he wakes up and discovers that he is again on the battlefield. He is given another chance! Now he wears a suit of armor of the gods, he has mighty power, and he wins the battle with the leader of the enemies. But when the battle ends, he discovers that he became alone, all his friends were killed. He understands the futility of wars! This is the main story in video!

DMB: Kharnha is found on a five-track single released last year. What is to follow?

Alexey: The single Kharnha heralds new album, scheduled for late April. It will be a truly amazing and ambitious album. We have invested a lot of time, money and all our spirits in it! Then we are planning a tour in Russia, and later in Europe, and the releasing of our first DVD! Great plans are waiting us in future!

Tags: black, Interview, Russian, symphonic

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 at 8:00 am and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.